


Your Earthly Tether - Part I

by basedporrim



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 07:41:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3928564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basedporrim/pseuds/basedporrim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Second-person narrative story featuring the trash queen Kuvira herself... and you!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! Welcome to my first submission! Enjoy!  
> (All characters, places etc. belong to Bryan Konietzko and the team of ATLA/TLOK)

171 AG

Opal Beifong wasn't the only one in the city of Zaofu destined to be an airbender. Harmonic Convergence gifted many with this ability, and you were blessed to have been one. Your mother -- an Air Acolyte -- married a nonbender Zaofu native, but your mother's affiliation with the air nomads was dominant in your upbringing.  
You were taught the history of the air nomads, of how Avatar Aang rebuilt and revived his nation. You practiced patience, discipline, kindness and oneness with all life around you. You meditated regularly. Having trained with master Tenzin, your mother taught you basic combat techniques that mirrored the airbenders. It lacked the bending itself, but Spirits forbid you should need it, you had self-defense.  
Now having recently acquired the ability to bend the air around you, it was as if you never lived without it.  
You trained with Opal shortly after Avatar Korra tutored her with the basics, but since the Avatar's visit to Zaofu was brief, Opal decided to return with her to Air Temple Island to hone her skills with Tenzin.  
But you chose to stay behind, to some of the Avatar's dismay.  
Zaofu was your home, and you felt obligated to be a representing body to the air nation in such an already diverse city. With her blessing, the Avatar ultimately agreed.  
It was an aspiration of yours to serve in Zaofu's guard as well; for the most part to defend the city you'd come to love, but also to serve and work alongside the matriarch Suyin Beifong. She was like a mother to all her citizens, and while you'd briefly met her on a number of occasions, there was so much more to the middle-age woman (yet youthful for her age) you'd liked to learn.  
She directed a metalbending-ballet dance troupe of no more than a dozen girls, and her star pupil, the one who seemed to always outshine the others, was none other than the captain of the guard herself. She couldn't have been much older than twenty-one, and you recall seeing her train with Suyin when the two of your were very young. You'd never known one another.  
You attended their performances regularly, and on the most recent occasion, after congratulating Suyin on another performance well-done, managed to find the captain after the show.  
You excuse yourself, catching her attention before she disappeared into the showers.  
"What a show that was, and what talent and grace do each of those girls possess. More importantly, what a strong leader do they all look up to."  
She thanks you with a warm smile, says it's humbling to have such a loyal fan, as she's recognized you as a regular to the performances.  
And oh, how rude of you to not even introduce yourself. You do so.  
She says you can call her Kuvira.  
You remember the small bouquet of flowers behind your back. Using her name, you present them in front of you and claim they're for her.  
She says they're gorgeous.  
You're pulled into a half-hug as she holds the flowers in one hand, and you receive a kiss on the cheek. It's chaste, friendly.  
Then she thanks you again for the flowers, says she loves them, and asks if you'd like to join her for dinner the following night.  


It's not a month later you find yourself in the captain's bed, both of you bare, and you take a moment or two to listen to your own breathing, to be present with it -- an old meditation practice -- and to listen to her breathing as well. Though she's a few inches taller than you, she's managed to make herself comfortable with her head resting just below your throat, your arms draped around her neck as her arms stretch beneath yours and the pillow.  
You gaze at her, at the blankets around her waist very gently rising and falling with her breathing; at her hair, down to the middle of her back and somewhat tousled, and it's not until it's out of the usual braid you can tell how long it truly is.  
There's a low rumble of Zaofu's colossal metal petals slowly closing as the sun is just about set. It doesn't take more than sixty seconds, and about forty-five seconds in, the last light of the sun catches two pairs of armor at the foot of the bed. One is more lustrous than the other, and it's your steel spaulder and vambraces; lightweight and custom-made by Zaofu's finest for the first airbending officer of the guard.  
For the first time in a very long time, if not ever, you're truly happy with where your life is.  
Zaofu's walls close silently. It's an early night for you both, but Spirits know sleep would catch up sooner rather than later.


	2. Chapter 2

You were never interested in politics, but news of Earth Queen Hou-Ting's assassination impacted most of the world as you knew it. Ba Sing Se was the Earth Kingdom capital, and seeing as Zaofu was predominantly earthbenders, news spread like wildfire. With the Avatar in recovery from a near-death experience, balance in the world would have to fall onto new, unknown shoulders.  
It didn't occur to you that the assassination would have such an effect on the city itself.  
You're about ready to report to the matriarch to conclude your evening patrol when you practically bump into Kuvira in the Beifong estate -- or rather she bumps into you. Her fist holds her helmet at her side in a vice-grip.  
She curses under her breath, agitated, but immediately apologizes.  
She just about continues past you when you take her arm, lightly and in show of concern, though enough for her to stop.  
"Kuvira...?"  
Her eyes don't meet yours.  
Finally Kuvira takes a deep breath and looks at you, exasperated with either herself or events that transpired.  
"It's... It's Suyin. She's alright," she quickly catches herself before you can assume the worst,  
"I just. I wish she would give me the time of day."  
Kuvira's voice lands flat, lacking energy. It wasn't unusual for Suyin and her protégé to have minor disagreements over guard protocol, dance routine scheduling, or for the two to quarrel like family. And if not for the glassiness of her eyes, you'd have assumed it was one of the above. Your eyes dart between hers in waiting for her to speak again.  
She gives a slow, thoughtful blink. Upon opening her eyes, Kuvira's tone is not unlike that of a politician. "Ba Sing Se is literally falling apart. No queen, no governing body. Everything's descended into chaos."  
Kuvira's brow furrows. "Don't get me wrong, I was itching to see her off the throne as much as the next guy, but... not like this. And of all the people with the credentials, of all the responsible, well-known families in the Earth Kingdom..." she grits her teeth, "... Suyin _Beifong_ won't step in." Kuvira stresses the emphasis on the matriarch's last name, scowling. It was Suyin's mother, after all, chief Toph Beifong who founded metalbending, the Earth Kingdom Police Force, and aided the previous Avatar in ending the hundred-year-war.  
Indeed, who other to rightfully rule the earth kingdom than a Beifong?  
You keep your tone soft in hopes of reassuring Kuvira: "I'm on my way to see her right now. I can't guarantee I'll change her mind, but I want to hear what she has to say."  
Kuvira scoffs. "Good luck. Really. I love her to death, but Spirits, she's got a skull as thick as steel."  
"I'll come see you afterwards, we can talk more then."  
She gives a short nod, glancing a last time down the corridor to Suyin's room before turning to leave, and in turn you give her biceps a subtly cheerful, but comforting squeeze.  
One of the two doors to Suyin's chamber sits open. You can feel your heart pounding in your ears. Though you knew her not to be fierce nor strict, something about her intimidated you. Probably on account of not knowing much about her personal life besides being somewhat familiar with her children growing up. The first deep conversation with the woman had not been intended to be as deep as her future political affiliation for the entire Earth Kingdom. It felt awkward already.  
You savor a deep breath, then step into the doorway to knock.  
She's alone, as her council of Tenzin and President Raiko had departed for the evening; she is bent over a miniature-scale model of Zaofu, but glances up at the sound of your knocking, straightens herself, greeting you with your name and a smile, and says to please come in.  
You salute as usual. Unusually, Suyin chuckles sweetly at the gesture.  
"Please -- you're off the clock for the night, dear."  
You bring yourself at ease. "... I saw Kuvira on my way in," you begin with an attempt for a light tone.  
"Did you?" Her tone is warm, but her eyes show fatigue at the mention of her captain.  
"Suyin, I've been really trying to wrap my head around the situation surrounding Ba Sing Se."  
She smiles through a sigh. (What calm resolve your leader had.) "So it would seem you're not alone."  
Her hand trails along a scale-model petal, one of which would cover the main metal island of little Zaofu. Her deep green tunic falls gently about her as she moves. "I built this city with my husband from practically nothing. Zaofu as you know it... is all I've come to know and love as my home. Never mind the streets I grew up on as a child, so many miles away." Her gaze flicks to an old photograph beside the model. You step closer, recognizing a twenty-some-odd year old Suyin -- alongside circus performers -- by her long curly lock of hair, dark brown in the picture.  
She catches you staring at the photo. "I was quite the wild child in my prime," She laughs, "My mother never did keep myself nor my sister under her thumb. I took that quite for granted." Her eyes show sadness for a fraction of a second before offering you a spot on the large green love seat and pouring some tea for the both of you, still hot from a silver platter on the coffee table.  
Suyin eases herself onto the cushion beside you, dutifully studying her tea as she finds the words she had conveyed earlier to Kuvira.  
You wait patiently, noting the greying hair at her roots, at the lines beneath her eyes as a result of stress, aging, or both.  
She doesn't even have to say it; you recognize the effect that ruling a city, though not nearly as strong as a larger political body, has on the woman.  
You chime in, letting her know you're already on her wavelength. "I can't imagine Ba Sing Se a sociopolitical cakewalk. The immense size, the dimensions of culture and class..."  
She closes her eyes for a moment before fixating them again on the model of Zaofu, just feet away from you both. "You must understand why I can't take Hou-Ting's place. It's far too different, she was... such a toxic force. It'd take decades to remedy the damage she's done. Those are some shoes I can't and won't bring myself to fill."  
Having lived in Zaofu your entire life, you're surprised to hear such uncertainty from the woman who made it all happen. If there was anyone you could and would place faith in, it was Suyin. "No matter who fills those shoes, all of Ba Sing Se's problems won't be resolved overnight. It will take time and it will take many like-minded people, but those people can be found all over the world. Everyone knows your name, your family, your legacy, and now they can know your kindness and your good judgement."  
"My decision is my own, and for matters bigger than just myself. I won't force my ideals on the entire Earth Kingdom."  
"Should no one claim responsibility, there may _be_ no Earth Kingdom. Ba Sing Se will only last so long under anarchy. Isn't now the perfect time? Eventually they'll have to send troops in from whomever they can find in the Earth Kingdom, and they won't hesitate to turn to Zaofu-" She shoots you an icy glare, though it just as quickly turns sad. Your heart nearly stops.  
You eat some of your words, as she appears to be on the brink of tears. Suyin could hardly fathom the thought that Kuvira could be easily drafted to the city in anarchy, skillful a fighter as she was. Besides, It's a matter she'd been dealing with for well over a couple of weeks now. You can tell she feels just as strongly about the Earth Kingdom as you do, if not stronger. As much as you wish it weren't so, you understand why she won't take power.  
"... Suyin I'm sorry. I have faith you'll do what's best."  
"Prince Wu is heir to the throne. Great-nephew of the late and great, and will have to do." Any reasoning you have left in you is nothing she hasn't heard from Kuvira.  
Neither of you have touched your tea, and for sake of keeping discussion light and not leaving a poor first conversational impression, you choose instead to ask more about her earlier years in the circus.  
She responds in kind, appearing grateful that you've chosen a far less touchy topic for her. After dealing with heavy political matters for the previous weeks it's obvious that reminiscing on her exciting past is a breath of fresh air.  
It's late into the night when the two of you finally finish your tea, and you covered discussion ranging from her past to your childhood to metaphysical morality, intermingling of humans and spirits and conspiracy theories. You feel as if you're speaking with a university friend rather than a matriarch and mother of five.  
She thanks you for stopping by and for the conversation, using your name. You thank her for the tea.  
" ... I'll talk to Kuvira. She didn't look very happy, but she'll come around," you reassure both Suyin and yourself.  
"I haven't been the best motherly figure to her. I only hope she doesn't hold a vendetta against me for personal reasons on top of the politics."  
"You're gonna be ok. You both are." You reach over and give her hand a reassuring squeeze.  
She gives a warm smile, caressing the side of your face in a motherly fashion. "You're so very sweet. Thank you." Suyin takes a deep breath, collecting your teacups and plates to leave them on the coffee table.  
"It's late, go on home now you crazy kid."  
You laugh, standing from the love seat. "A compliment to your ethics."  
"You should know better than to follow my example, lieutenant." She winks.  
You're nearly beaming, but manage a formal bow. You're met with a hug when you stand upright, the two of you about the same height and eye-to-eye.  
"Goodnight. Be good."  
"Yes ma'am," And you see yourself out.


	3. Chapter 3

You almost don't see Kuvira, as she's meditating among the meteorites in the estate garden. She's practically invisible in her street clothes without her armor. The air is warm enough for you to be out even this late at night, and you quietly sit before her, lotus-style as she is, not wanting to alarm her. You close your eyes as well.  
It's no more than thirty seconds until she speaks. "I miss her."  
Your eyes open, meeting hers at the same time.  
"Call me selfish, call me what you want. I get she has an actual family and obligations to Zaofu."  
You're quiet for a moment. "She didn't put it into the most straightforward of terms, and maybe she doesn't show it in the most straightforward way, but nothing is more important to her than her family. That includes you."  
Her eyes turn steely, but you continue before she can interject.  
"She's... protective of you. She can see the effect Ba Sing Se has on you and she just doesn't want you getting hurt. But she wants to be better, for you. She's really trying. Things just get... scary and confusing in her life and her duties. But she's trying."  
"We did everything together. I barely see her anymore."  
You take her hands. "So go back to her. Talk to her, tell her how you feel. You miss your friend, your mother. Anyone can see how much she means to you. And I see how much you mean to her. She just has a funny way of showing it. It's kind of a mom thing," you chuckle.  
Her eyes fixate on a spot on the ground in front of her.  
You echo Suyin's pleas: "... You two have been through so much together. It's just a little bit of politics. Everything's going to turn out just fine. Please try not to hold this against her."  
The two of you sit in silence for a little while. You can tell her mind is running a million miles an hour, and decide to call it a night. "It's getting late."  
"Hm." She steals a last glance at the estate home. "I'll sleep on it."  
"Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe she'll have given some more thought to it."

Suyin and Kuvira never did end up meeting eye to eye.

Not long after that night, Kuvira invites you to her apartment and you find yourself tasked with the most unusual request of helping her pack her essentials into boxes. Your first instinct is to inquire as to why.  
"... I'm moving out."  
You resort to your first, and hopefully correct assumption. "You... got promoted? You're moving into the Beifong estate?"  
She gives a short laugh, the birthmark beneath her eye crinkling up with her smile, though there's sadness beneath the surface. "I'm leaving Zaofu. And I'd like you to come with me." By the end of her sentence, her eyes had lit up again.  
You'd joke with her as to why she didn't offer to help you pack your own things first, but you remembered as an airbender you manage to get by with the bare minimum, and the fact that leaving Zaofu is the last thing you'd ever have expected her to decide. This was what Suyin had been fearing; what you’d been fearing as well.  
"But...." You hesitate, going back to your conversation with her. Does she know? Had Kuvira put in her two weeks notice of leave with her?  
"It's a lot, I know," Kuvira resumes, "but there are bigger things out there than this little valley, these little metal towns." She places a hand on your bicep and gently squeezes. "We can restore balance to Ba Sing Se! Now, more than ever before, it needs a strong leader."  
You shake your head, remembering your conversation with Suyin. A capital as large and diverse as Ba Sing Se would only ben doomed to crumble with one figurehead ruling its entirety. True, there was a vacuum of power at the present moment, but realistically it would require a reformed political system altogether. To usurp and focus power into one individual would lead to a vicious cycle. "I see the path you're choosing. That's... Kuvira, that's too much power for any one person to have. You see what happened with Hou-Ting. I can't and won't go with you, and I truly wish you would reconsider. I _urge_ you. Please think twice about this. At least, don’t go yet. We need to recalculate our intervention, if we should intervene at all."  
"I have airships prepared to leave in three day's time. There is no reconsidering to be done." Her voice is different. She was more forceful, more headstrong, and more passionate about this campaign than you'd ever seen in nearly a year of knowing and loving her.  
Kuvira was not to be swayed. She would not budge for anything nor anyone, leaving the two of you at an impasse.  
A lump forms at the pit of your throat. "You know I love you but I can't share these ideals."  
"Because of your culture? Because your mother raised you without a backbone?"  
You're about to lash out, but dont. It's not like Kuvira to land shallow blows about families, certainly not yours. You straighten yourself up, deadpanning in her eyes. "Because this isn't what the Avatar would do. You have a skull as thick as you claim Suyin's to be, and you are so headstrong that if you go to Ba sing Se now, you will fall."  
She silently judges you for questioning her capabilities. "The Avatar is not here, nor am I her." She straightens herself to match you and folds her hands behind her back in a poised manner. Her tone is cold, but otherwise eerily calm. "I am leaving for Ba Sing Se in three days with a team of engineers and scientists from _my_ guard; with, or without you. Whatever decision you make is your own. But Spirits help you if you try to stop me."  
She is lost to you completely. In a matter of barely minutes, your world, your life with Kuvira and Zaofu is unraveling.  
You say nothing for a few moments, knowing she is well past salvation.  
"... Then I wish only for your safety. You will pack your things yourself."  
You make a point in showing minimal emotion in your words, turning to leave without hesitation. She doesn't follow nor try to stop you. 

As promised, three days later Kuvira leaves early in the morning on an airship to Ba Sing Se with her highest-ranking officers, save you, of course. She takes Baatar, Suyin's eldest son, with her. Unlike you, he follows her blindly.  


You don't see her off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of part one! Wow and it looks a lot shorter on a computer screen as opposed to my iPhone.  
> Stay tuned for part two! I'll space my chapters for part two out a bit more as it's still a work in progress.  
> If you've been here since little ole chapter one then great! Thanks for being part of the ride!  
> And if you just tuned in... that's great too!

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! Thanks for reading. If you made it this far, it really means a lot.  
> So this is part one, I've so far completed some of part two and there'll likely be only two parts. Lemme know what you think!
> 
> UPD8:  
> Part two is complete... With a surprise epilogue! Thanks again so much for taking this wild ride of a read (◕‿◕✿)  
> 


End file.
